AIDS or acquired immune deficiency syndrome is a disease of the immune system caused by the HIV virus. In their December 2006 AIDS epidemic update the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization reported that 39.5 million people worldwide were infected with HIV. Of that number, 4.3 million people were newly infected in 2006.
Raltegravir is a new drug candidate that shows potent in-vitro activity against HIV-1 strains, including those that are resistant to current anti-retroviral drugs. Raltegravir is also known as MK-0518 and by the chemical names, N-[(4-fluorophenyl)methyl]-1,6-dihydro-5-hydroxy-1-methyl-2-[1-methyl-1-[[(5-methyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl)carbonyl]amino]ethyl]-6-oxo-4-pyrimidinecarboxamide and N-(2-(4-(4-fluorobenzylcarbamoyl)-5-hydroxy-1-methyl-6-oxo-1,6-dihydropyrimidin-2-yl)propan-2-yl)-5-methyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-carboxamide
Raltegravir inhibits the activity of the HIV-1 integrase. It is currently in phase II human clinical trials for the treatment of AIDS (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00460382; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00454337).
Despite the beneficial activities of raltegravir, there is a continuing need for new compounds to treat HIV infection.